Faith Is Not Blind Faith

"Faith means believing something without evidence."

You have probably encountered this definition — perhaps from a philosophy lecture, perhaps from social media, perhaps from Richard Dawkins. It sounds intellectually rigorous. It is also not what the Bible means by faith.

Hebrews 11:1 — the most frequently cited verse on faith — describes it as "confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." The key word is unseen, not unevidenced. These are fundamentally different concepts.

You cannot see gravity. You cannot see love. You cannot see the past. Yet you have substantial evidence for all of them.

Biblical faith is trust grounded in evidence — comparable to trusting a bridge because you know it has been engineered and load-tested, even though you have not personally inspected every structural component.

The story of Thomas is frequently misinterpreted. Thomas stated he would not believe Jesus had risen unless he personally examined the evidence. What did Jesus do?

He appeared. He presented the evidence. He did not condemn Thomas for asking. He met him exactly where he was.

Yes, Jesus said "blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed." But he said this after providing Thomas with the evidence he requested. The point is not "stop asking questions." The point is "the evidence is sufficient even for those who were not physically present."

• Luke records that Jesus presented himself alive "by many proofs" (Acts 1:3). The Greek word (tekmēriois) denotes demonstrable, convincing evidence.
• Paul instructed the Corinthians to interview the 500-plus eyewitnesses who saw the risen Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:6).
• Isaiah 1:18 — "Come now, let us reason together."
• 1 Peter 3:15 — "Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have."

The Bible explicitly instructs believers to have reasons for their convictions. "Blind faith" is not a biblical concept.

Primarily from Enlightenment-era philosophers who constructed a false dichotomy between faith and reason. Kierkegaard's "leap of faith" was distorted into "jump without looking." That was not his intent, but the misreading became entrenched.

The actual history of Christianity is populated by rigorous thinkers: Augustine, Aquinas, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Faraday, and Lemaitre — the priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory. These were not people who abandoned reason at the church door.

If someone claims that faith requires abandoning evidence, they are not describing biblical faith. They are describing a straw man.

Genuine faith examines the evidence — the origin of the universe, the precision of physical constants, the manuscript record, the resurrection data, the moral law written into human conscience — and trusts where that evidence leads.

That is not irrational. It is among the most rational responses available.